Fine British horror!

Rating: 8/10 (7 June 2003)

Coming from England I have been very excited about the recent resurgence in British horror to hit the market. Dog Soldiers' was easily my favourite movie of last year and recently I got the chance to watch Britain's other main horror from 2002  28 Days Later.
Some people have been calling this a rip-off of Resident Evil' but those people should know that the script for 28 Days Later' was written before Resident Evil' and therefore any similarities are purely coincidental. That's not to say that '28 Days Later' hasn't taken influences from elsewhere, some of the scenes are reminiscent of horror classics such as Day of the Dead'.
At the beginning of the movie we see a group of animal rights activists break into an animal research laboratory to release some monkeys. During the break in a laboratory worker catches them in the act but the activists prevent him from doing anything about the break in. The laboratory worker pleads with the activists to stop and informs them that all the monkeys are infected with `rage'. They don't listen and free a monkey anyway, to their misfortune. 28 days later Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakes from the hospital bed he has been in for the past month or so and realises that something is very wrong, the city of London is completely deserted. After wandering around he discovers `the infected' as well as a few survivors. With only a handful of survivors the days of the human race look numbered, is there any hope for survival?
What we have here is a very well written and thought provoking horror movie with some rather deep and meaningful subtexts. The movie is not as straight forward as what it seems at first, there are points made in the movie about society as a whole which require some thought about before they can be fully understood and appreciated. These sentiments are much like those found in Cannibal Holocaust' but not against a morally-corrupt backdrop like CH so therefore they have more meaning and purpose to them.
There is some good acting in the film too, particularly from the young Megan Burns who plays her character, Hannah, as if she were an experienced young actress. Hannah invokes feelings of sympathy in the viewer because of all the hell she's been through; after all she's just a child. Her performance is powerful and realistic and should be given the credit it deserves. Cillian Murphy is also good as Jim, though one must question whether the dialogue written for him was realistic; there are certain scenes where it becomes hard to suspend your disbelief. Viewers are also treated to some quality direction from Danny Boyle of 'Trainspotting' fame.
Unfortunately I feel that the second part of the film became its downfall. The plot suddenly seemed to shift away from the original subject matter and changed into more of a story about humanity's own self-destructive nature. While I agree that some of the issues tackled in the second half were exciting, intriguing and thought provoking I feel that they should not have made such dramatic changes in the storyline.
One thing that works brilliantly for the story though is the virtual lack of character development. Normally I feel that a good movie should include a lot of information about the characters history yet here it doesn't. We know hardly anything about the characters that we are watching. How does that improve the film? Because the virtual destruction of humanity is being portrayed and those people who have survived don't have the time to get to know each other as they must concentrate on what is going on around them. The short bits of character history that are released into the film are all of interest to the viewer and keep the isolated and desperate feel of the film going. By not knowing who these people are we are placing blind trust in their arms. Before the outbreak of the virus they could have been serial killers, burglars, car thieves or some sort of general social scum, all of which is irrelevant now as they must join forces or they are finished. This point is similar in ways to the points made in the original Night of the Living Dead' about joining together to work for a common goal.
Less the slight inconsistencies and minor deterioration of the second half we are still left with a very good, thought provoking movie that is definitely worth watching. Fans of the horror genre should enjoy this and also fans of Dog Soldiers' as both movies create a similar atmosphere. My rating for '28 Days Later'  7.5/10